Matthew MurraySansaire Sous Vide MachineWith foolproof one-touch controls, the Sansaire Sous Vide Machine couldn't be easier to use, but it lacks wireless connectivity, and its large size may not fit into your current cooking setup.

Too large to fit most standard household cooking vessels. Clip is a little flimsy for shallower pots. No wireless connectivity.

Bottom Line

With foolproof one-touch controls, the Sansaire Sous Vide Machine couldn't be easier to use, but it lacks wireless connectivity, and its large size may not fit into your current cooking setup.

I consider myself more of a baker than a cook. I love knowing that, thanks to the wonders of chemistry, I can throw together some flour, sugar, and leavener and pull from the oven a killer, carb-packed confection each and every time. With cooking, so much is left to experimentation; I find that anything that can go wrong frequently does. For that reason, I consider sous vide machines a godsend: Put food inside a plastic bag, place the bag into water the machine has precisely heated, and come back in an hour or two to find your dish finished, with no chance of overcooking. The Sansaire Sous Vide Machine ($199) fulfills that fundamental requirement, and couldn't be simpler to use on top of it. But its lack of wireless support and its absurd size add enough frustration to the process to keep the Anova Culinary Precision Cooker Wi-Fi our Editors' Choice sous vide machine.

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Design and Operation

With its sleek design, the Sansaire unquestionably looks like it belongs in a modern kitchen. From the front, it resembles a solid black tube, with both sides gently indented. The outport (through which the heated water is circulated) is about a quarter-inch from the bottom; the two raised lines that delineate the minimum and maximum water level can be found in the space above that; the digital temperature and time display is about 2.5 inches from the top; and a gray band above the display, indicating the dial used to set cooking parameters, are the only other visible features on this side. The Power button and two control buttons are on the silver-colored top. On the back are the clip for fastening the Sansaire to the pot or other water container you're using for cooking (it's easy to pull off and adjust to accommodate a thicker wall) and, above that, the jack for the removable power cord (which looks identical to one you'd see on a desktop PC).

What's the catch? The Sansaire is huge. It's not so much its height (just shy of 14.5 inches), as it's actually slightly shorter than the Anova (14.75 inches), but rather the base that goes into the water. It measures 4 inches wide, which is enormous compared with the Anova's 2.2 inches; the ChefSteps Joule is smaller still, at 11 inches tall and 1.85 inches in diameter. This has a significant impact on what you can cook in. My cherished 7.25-quart Le Creuset Round Dutch Oven, which has yet to meet a recipe it's too big for, was practically unusable with the Sansaire: It took up more than a third of the surface area of the pot's bottom. The Sansaire is heavy, too, at about 3.2 pounds, compared with the Anova's 2.5 pounds and the Joule's 1.3 pounds, and the fairly thin clip (at either setting) couldn't support it in the "shallow" (7.5-inch) Le Creuset. Unless you have a giant stockpot sitting around, you'll want to invest in a hefty plastic tub or get used to filling your kitchen sink to the brim to use the Sansaire.

Once you straighten out this issue, though, cooking with the Sansaire couldn't be easier. After you touch the Power button, the Sansaire immediately starts heating the water to the temperature shown (in a pleasing blue) on the display. Turn the control dial clockwise to lower the temperature or counterclockwise to raise it; the commonsense temperature extremes are 32 degrees and 212 degrees Fahrenheit. Prefer Celsius? Hit the thermometer button on the top. To toggle the display between your current temperature and your target temperature, the crosshairs button (also on top) does the trick.

That's it. There's no other way to work the Sansaire; the Anova and Joule have wireless support so you can control them with your smartphone or tablet no matter where you are (the Joule even requires that you do so). On the Sansaire website, you can preorder the new Delta model, which does have Wi-Fi connectivity and is slated to be released in July of 2017 (pricing isn't yet available).

Performance and Extras

Like the other sous vide machines we've tested, the Sansaire delivered marvelous results, from succulent, juicy chicken and flawlessly medium-rare steak, to soft- and hard-cooked eggs with exactly the desired amount of firmness to the whites and yolks. The full-color manual that comes with the Sansaire suggests cooking times and temperatures for almost any food you're apt to cook using it; in my testing, they were all spot-on.

Though a vacuum sealer is the norm for this style of preparation ("sous vide" is French for "under vacuum"), you don't need one—just put the food in a plastic zipper-lock bag and slowly lower it into the water to push out the air, and then seal the bag immediately before dropping it all the way in. This is what I did, and the results were never less than spectacular.

Note, though, that meat cooked sous vide won't be seared, and beef will probably have a gray, unappetizing look to it. A short trip to a preheated cast-iron skillet will give you the drool-worthy char that defines killer steaks, but if you leave it in the pan too long, you might overcook the luscious meat inside. Another option is to sear it with a torch; on the Sansaire website you can buy one that uses propane, and comes with a specially designed rack, for $159. Another optional buy is an 8-ounce bottle of steak aging sauce ($24.99), which imparts additional, dry-aged flavor to beef.

Conclusions

If ease of use is all that matters to you, the Sansaire Sous Vide Machine is an outstanding way to perfectly cook meat, fish, eggs, and vegetables using only water and a plastic bag—you'll master it in seconds. But if you don't have a container wide and deep enough to hold all the water you'll need, the Sansaire's size is a hulking problem. Plus, if the smart home lifestyle is what matters to you, the lack of wireless control will be a bit of a letdown. From that perspective, either the ChefSteps Joule or the Anova Culinary Precision Cooker Wi-Fi is a better buy. The Anova, which complements its mobile operation with easy on-unit controls, has the edge, and our Editors' Choice recommendation.

Sansaire Sous Vide Machine

Bottom Line: With foolproof one-touch controls, the Sansaire Sous Vide Machine couldn't be easier to use, but it lacks wireless connectivity, and its large size may not fit into your current cooking setup.

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About the Author

Matthew Murray got his humble start leading a technology-sensitive life in elementary school, where he struggled to satisfy his ravenous hunger for computers, computer games, and writing book reports in Integer BASIC. He earned his B.A. in Dramatic Writing at Western Washington University, where he also minored in Web design and German. He has been... See Full Bio

Sansaire Sous Vide Machine

Sansaire Sous Vide Machine

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